Like mother, like daughter!
On Saturday, Jamie Lee Curtis opened up to PEOPLE about how it feels to be nominated in the same Academy Awards category as her mother, Janet Leigh, in what she calls "a lineage link."
"You know, I didn't think about that," Curtis, 64, said at the Independent Spirit Awards of her best supporting actress Oscar nomination. "I mean, I knew it, I was aware of it. I never thought that would happen. Like my parents and their fame and their stardom was so legendary that I've never felt like I would be anywhere near the level. It's a beautiful link. It's a lineage link."
Curtis earned her first Academy Award nomination back in January for her role as Deirdre Beaubeirdre in Everything Everywhere All at Once. Curtis' nomination comes more than 60 years after her mother Leigh was nominated in the same category for her work in Psycho. The year before, Curtis' father Tony Curtis earned a nod in the best actor category for The Defiant Ones.
"Now, yes, I have my own legacy and my own life," Curtis says. "But my life, which is my real life, and the fantasy life of showoff business, is not something that I sort of put much attention to."
"Certainly at the SAG Awards, I thought of my parents," she adds. "There they were. I wore the ring that my dad gave my mom. I found it in a drawer, and I thought, 'I'm going to wear my parents' wedding ring to the SAG Awards.' They were SAG members. It was wonderful."
While it'll be another week until Curtis finds out if she took home the Oscar — which she's in the running for against Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's Angela Bassett, The Whale's Hong Chau, The Banshees of Inisherin's Kerry Condon, and Everything Everywhere All at Once's Stephanie Hsu — Curtis has already saluted her parents during award season.
At the SAG Awards last month, the actress revealed during her speech for outstanding performance by a female actor in a supporting role that she made the decision to wear her parents' wedding ring.
"I'm wearing the wedding ring that my father gave my mother. They hated each other, by the way, by the end of it," she said with a laugh. "But my sister Kelly and I were born from love. My father was from Hungary and my mother was from Denmark, and they had nothing and they became these monstrous stars in this industry. My parents were actors. And I married an actor [Christopher Guest]."
"I love actors. I love acting. I love the job we get to do. I love being a part of a crew. I love being part of a cast. I love what we do with each other," she continued. "It's such a beautiful job. And I know that so many people in our industry who are actors who don't get to do this job, and you look at nights like this and think 'Is that ever going to be possible for me?' And I know you look at me and think 'Well, nepo baby, that's why she's there' — and I totally get it. But the truth of the matter is I'm 64 years old and this is just amazing!"
Curtis has been paying tribute to her past in more ways than just one, as well. Last month, the actress opened up to Variety at the Producers Guild Awards about the potential of a Freaky Friday sequel, in which she revealed "it's going to happen."
"Without saying there's anything officially happening, I'm looking at you in this moment and saying, 'Of course, it's going to happen.' It's going to happen," Curtis said.
While the project hasn't been officially announced, Curtis has been teasing the possibility of a Freaky Friday follow-up for quite some time now. Back in November, the star told PEOPLE that she wanted to work with Lindsay Lohan, 36, again, and that there was "a lot of good talk going on" regarding a sequel to Mark Waters' 2003 adaptation of Mary Rodgers' 1972 novel, which also had a landmark 1976 film version plus a 1995 made-for-tv remake.
"There would be nothing I would love more, honestly, than to be able to work with her again, share our time again, and now be able to share it at this age with both of us 20 years older, or whatever we are," Curtis said at the time.
